Vimy & Beaumont-Hamel

We left Gladys & Carlo’s around midday on January 1^st to begin our ten-day road trip. We were both buzzing with excitement as we pulled out of Hoofddorp. Brendan had already seen many of the places we were planning to visit, having worked in France as a tour guide for two summers, but he was happy to have the opportunity to go back with his family. And of course I was thrilled to be visiting France for the first time!

Our first destination was Arras, where Brendan had spent his summers. He had worked as a tour guide at Vimy Ridge and Beaumont-Hamel, places of great significance for Canadian and Newfoundland soldiers in the Great War. Before arriving in Arras, we stopped at a memorial to victims of the Nazi regime in France – men killed for being part of the French resistance. The memorial is in the ravine where the executions happened  – a sad and eerie place. We also stopped at a Commonwealth War Cemetery. I had seen my first of these in Arnhem, Holland, and would see many more during our days in France. The fields of Northern France are scattered with First and Second World War cemeteries – so many battles were fought on that soil, and so many bodies now lie there in rest.  On our trip, we would be paying respects at several of them.

We arrived in Arras in the evening and spent a short while walking around the city. Brendan showed me the houses where he had lived both summers. I could tell he was excited to be back in this place of so many memories.

Grand Place, Arras

On Sunday morning we got up fairly early, and after enjoying a breakfast of pain au chocolat and cappuccino, we set out for Vimy. Because of Canada’s successful taking of Vimy Ridge in 1917, France has gifted our country with a large portion of the land on which the battle took place. It is now a beautifully kept memorial site, crowned with the iconic Vimy monument. Brendan quickly morphed back into tour guide and explained the battle to me in great detail. We walked through trenches, examined huge shell holes, and paid our respects at the monument. What struck me most about this site was the stark contrast between how beautiful it is now and how awful it must have been during the war. Today it is lush and green and peaceful – then it was a mess of mud, chaos, and death. The trenches lie as grass covered ruts in the ground, rolling smoothly into one another, and trees now grow where men had fallen, a gift of reparation from Austria and Germany. The land has largely healed but retains its scars, and remains a memento of human capacity for both violence and heroism.

The now-grassy trenches

Looking at the Allied line from a German trench - the two lines are astoundingly close

A sandbag trench on the Allied side 

The Vimy Ridge Memorial

After lunch and stops at French, German, and Canadian war cemeteries, we visited Beaumont-Hamel, where Newfoundlanders fought in the battle of the Somme. Many lost their lives on July 1^st, 1916 and though the Germans faired better on that fateful day, the balance would shift before the close of the battle 4 months later. Again, the land conceals the horrors of war, but not completely: grassy ruts, a stump representing the Danger Tree, cemeteries… It may sound strange that we spent our holidays visiting so many cemeteries, but we both feel it’s important to remember the past and pay our respects to those whose actions had such an impact on the unfolding of history.

Notre Dame de Lorette, a French war cemetery

German war cemetery (there are 4 names on each cross)

The Danger Tree at Beaumont-Hamel

We visited one more monument at Thiepval , a memorial to the 72,000 missing allied soldiers who fell in the battle, before heading on to our next destination. These soldiers still lie in the fields of the Somme making the entirety of the battlefield an unmarked cemetery. As we departed, we passed the village of Albert where Albert Ball (Britain’s greatest WWI pilot and Billy Bishop’s friend and rival) was shot down after returning from a mission.

We were to stay in Rouen that night, but stopped first in Amiens to go to Mass. Like so many French cities, Amiens is home to a beautiful gothic cathedral. We spent some time admiring it and taking in the city before Mass at a local parish. It was late by the time we reached Rouen and we foolishly stayed up even later to watch a movie! At least it was a good one, and appropriate for the theme of our day: The Red Barron, about a famous German pilot in WWI. 

Amiens Cathedral (from the back)

Façade of the cathedral